King's A and E
by Alixinsanity
Summary: Arthur just turned up to shift, hoping for a slow day. Instead he get's the enigma that is Merlin. AU where Arthur's a doctor, and Merlin's a kid that's involved in things he shouldn't be. Eventual Merthur
1. Chapter 1

_Inspired by this amazing picture- art/Doctor-and-Punk-466201319 _

**Chapter 1**

The ringing sound screeched throughout the Accident and Emergency department, Arthur couldn't help but glare at the intern who had commented on how quiet the night shift had been so far; the silly student obviously hadn't had the sods law lesson yet. Quickly walking towards the red phone mounted on the wall, Arthur answered on a shrill ring, "Hello, King's A + E." The blonde haired doctor nodded to himself as he scribbled down notes as he was talked too down the phone; the large sign directly next to the phone catching his eye, 'The Red Phone is for information, not discussion'. Putting the phone back on the hook, Arthur made his way towards the loudspeaker, "Trauma, 10 minutes. Trauma, 10 minutes." That was all it took for the A+E staff to begin rushing about.

The red phone was the thing that was dreaded on busy days and sometimes desired on slow days. It was the thing that alerted the staff of impending ambulance arrivals, giving everyone time to prepare the area and the staff for the situations. Today might have been a slow day, but Arthur would have preferred the phone to have remained silent as he pulled a plastic apron over his head before adjusting his latex gloves. The intern whom had jinxed the phones silence stood sheepishly to the side of the bed, as the senior doctor on shift quickly described the situation that they were expecting to arrive in only a few minutes time. They would have to wait for the paramedics to arrive to find out the full extent of the injuries.

Arthur turned slightly as he heard the sounds of the trauma doors opening, with a stretcher being wheeled in by a small group of paramedics and a porter. As the young boy on the stretcher was wheeled into the room, the blonde doctor winced along with the rest of the doctors and nurses as a paramedic began listing the boy's injuries. "Male stabbing victim, teenage, exact age unknown, was seen being dumped from a car onto the pavement and onlookers called the ambulance. Severe lacerations to the abdomen. He has mentioned pain in his chest, and he has bruising and swelling to the rest of the body. Has received 5mg of Morphine." Arthur winced slightly at the list of injuries, as did the rest of the staff; even Gaius took a deep inhale of breath. No one liked hearing those kinds of words. He heard Percival, one of the nurses; ask one of the paramedics for the kid's name. "He's a John Smith, no form of ID, and when we asked him he was uncooperative and told us to go fuck ourselves."

Arthur groaned slightly, the last thing he needed with this kind of patient was for the teenager to be a complete little shit. Receiving a small nod from Gaius, Arthur put his hands on the back board which was between the boy's body and the stretcher; leaning down slightly he spoke to the teen, "Hello there, my name is Arthur, can you tell me your name?" Receiving only a grumbled swear word in response, the blonde doctor's jaw tightened in frustration as he continued with his next question, "Okay, do you know where you are?"

"…Hospital."

"Well that's good, one out of two. Should we try the first question again?" Arthur asked, his voice dripping in false sweetness. He watched as three of the paramedics, three nurses and the intern from earlier assumed positions around the edges of the back board.

"Merlin." The teenager breathed out before coughing up a small splutter of blood.

"Merlin; we are just going to move you onto the bed now Merlin." He smiled softly as the teenager's eyes fluttered open revealing bright blue orbs. Turning towards the staff around the bed, Arthur began the countdown to lift and shift the backboard. As soon as the board was lifted and moved onto the bed, they removed the straps that were binding the boy to the board, before removing the board from underneath him.

"Okay Merlin, we are going to have to keep this neck brace on for a little bit longer just to be safe; but first we are gonna have to sort out that nasty wound you've got on your tummy." Percival stated, moving up to the head of the bed just so that he could smile down at the boy before he began setting up a drip; Arthur watched as Merlin tried to nod but was unable due to the neck brace.

"Can you tell us what happened Merlin?" Arthur asked softly staying close to the boy's head as the rest of the staff began to slowly examine the injuries that were covering the boy's body. The paramedics were gathering there stuff and leaving, there job now done. The blonde doctor watched as the boy visibly tensed, remaining silent. Sighing, Arthur looked up and over towards where Gaius stood observing; the old doctor shook his head at Arthur, silently telling him to move on so that they don't agitate the teenager. Nodding his head in response to Gaius, he moved towards the boy's bandaged abdomen slowly removing the layers of soiled padding, "I'm just going to assess the damage." Peeling back the last layer of blood soaked bandage, Arthur carefully touched at the wound; wincing as the boy screamed at the sudden pain. "You are an incredibly lucky man."

"Don't feel it." Merlin grimaced as a nurse temporarily pressed a fresh bandage onto the wound.

"Well, it looks like that knife earlier missed all of your organs and you haven't lost as much blood as you could have. So you won't need to have surgery on your stomach, we're just gonna stitch it up and then we're going to start on the rest of your injuries." Arthur smiled as he moved back up towards Merlin's head, allowing the boy to see his face.

"Then what?"

"Then, we are going to send you up for a CT scan because the paramedics said you were complaining about pain in your chest, so we just want to check everything is fine in that area." Arthur explained, his tone gently soothing the teenage boy. The blonde doctor smiled down at the boy, his toothy grin distracting the boy as the anaesthetist numbed the abdomen with a shot, before the stitches were placed in.

Arthur walked with Merlin's trolley as the boy was wheeled up towards CT; his stab wound was stitched and bandaged, whilst the smaller wounds had been cleaned off the dirt and dried blood. Although badly beat up, the boy's condition wasn't as bad as it could have been. The thing with working shifts in the A+E, was that you always had to be prepared for the worse possible situation; when Arthur picked up the red phone and was told about the situation, he had expected the worst. Instead he got lucky; it was a small stab wound that just looked nasty, and considering the extent of the beating, Merlin had been luckier still. The CT scan showed that the boy hadn't broken any ribs, he had simply bruised them.

Arthur was happy that everything was okay; it meant that they could move him onto a ward. When he told Merlin that he would be moved onto a ward within a couple of hours, Arthur saw the way the teen's attention peaked. Presuming that it was due to some sort of emotional attachment that had formed, Arthur reassured the boy that he would come and visit him the next night before he was back on shift. Arthur was a good doctor, who cared a great deal about his patients; he had seen the ways vulnerable people both young and old needed to feel safe, and in those cases he would go out of his way to check up on them if they were admitted to a ward in that hospital. When his shift finished, he stayed behind a few moments longer just to wish Merlin well, and to remind him that he would come visit him on the ward in the evening later that day.

He left the hospital with Percival; he often gave the nurse a lift home when they worked the same shift. He was one of the closest friends he had made during his time working at the hospital, and Arthur often hung out with the man outside of work hours. Today though, they just went to eat breakfast at a café before heading to their respective homes to sleep before the next night shift. When he finally got through his front door to his flat, the morning sun was already burning high in the sky, making Arthur grateful for blackout curtains as he headed straight for his pitch black bedroom. Dropping down on to his unmade bed from the previous day, Arthur didn't even bother stripping out of his scrubs; instead he just pulled his duvet over the top of him before drifting to sleep.

That evening, Arthur found himself driving through the busy London streets earlier than he normally would. He had timed it so that he would get at least half an hour with the teenager from the previous shift. Walking to King's Hospital, Arthur smiled warmly at the members of staff he passed on his way up to the ward that Merlin had been admitted to that morning. Nodding his head in greeting to the HealthCare workers at the main desk on the ward, Arthur walked with a small skip towards the room he had placed the kid in. Standing in the doorway, Arthur frowned as he took in the empty hospital room, with a freshly made bed; walking back towards the desk, he asked one of the women behind it,"Can you tell me where the patient in room 304 has gone?"

The HealthCare worker raised an eyebrow at the doctor's blunt tone, but she didn't ask questions as she tapped away at the computer. "Merlin? The John Smith that was brought in from Resus' this morning… let's see… Yhp. It appears that despite advice given to him, he checked himself out approximately midday. " Arthur's expression turned stony as he murmured a thank you before storming out of the ward.

Anger fuelled his body, as he stomped down the stairs rather than taking the lift; the blonde man couldn't understand why the teenager would check himself out of the hospital. He had told Merlin himself that the teen would probably stay in for observation for the next few days. Arthur wanted to slam something, break something, scream at someone; instead he found himself pouting in the corner of the staff room. He felt angry and betrayed by the boy. When Percival walked in, the muscular nurse was just about to head over to his friend with his usual cheery smile; only just stopping when he saw the rage that was evident on Arthur's face. By the time the night shift started, Arthur had managed to sort his feelings out, a masked smile covering his face as he began to deal with the array of people that fell through the doors to A+ E that night.

The kid didn't cross Arthurs mind again for weeks, which eventually turned into months. The hectic job as an A+E doctor kept him busy, and the constant change in shifts left him spending most of his free time trying to catch up on basic things such as sleep, and meeting with his older sister. It was nearly three months since he first met Merlin, and Arthur found himself on another night shift. This time it was a hectic night, full of drunks, children and elderly patients, and Arthur wanted to throw his hands up in defeat when the red phone rang loudly through the busy department. Percival was the one who answered the phone, and the nurse was the one who called out on the loudspeaker, "Trauma 4 minutes. Trauma 4 minutes."

"Okay, we have a John Doe, unresponsive and he has no form of ID. Was thrown from a high speed vehicle, landed on the road and was then hit by another car. Injuries all over, we believe that he has damaged his pelvis." Standing in the bay as the ambulance crew wheeled the trauma through the curtains, as they listed off the injuries Arthur noticed the patients beaten up face. "Merlin!?"

Notes:

Enjoy, please be nice. And if you have medical training and I've written bullshit please let me know so I can try and make it better.


	2. Chapter 2

"You know this kid?" One of the paramedics looked up at Arthur in slight shock; it did appear odd for a twenty-six year old man to know a teenager who was clearly living on the bad side of life. Arthur shook his head in response before explaining quickly, "He came in a few months back after he was stabbed."

"Should we be treating both of these incidents as related in some way?" Percival asked as he began adjusting the IV line.

Arthur turned his head to the side as he pondered on the situation for a moment, before nodding slightly. "For the moment we need to make sure he is okay, and then we need to make sure he can't run off this time. Then we will look into the situation behind these incidents." Moving towards the head of the stretcher, the blonde doctor looked down at the boy's face as he rested his hands at the top of the board. "Merlin. Can you hear me Merlin?" Arthur watched as he saw Merlin's eyes flicker behind the closed lids, before slowly opening to reveal the bright blue irises. The teenager groaned, whether it was due to pain or from seeing his face; Arthur didn't know. "What are you doing back here?" Arthur joked softly.

"What am I doing here?"

"You got here by a car, do you remember?" Arthur explained, receiving another groan from Merlin in response.

"Hurts…"

"I'm not surprised. Can you tell me whereabouts it hurts Merlin?" The blonde doctor asked as he watched over the rest of the staff rushing around the boy's damaged body. Merlin took a deep inhale before slowly beginning to lift his right arm, finger pointed. The boy barely raised it more than two inches off the bed, before Percival placed a hand on the skinny forearm, gently pushing it back down. "Try not to move Merlin, tell us where it hurts."

"My hip." Merlin gasped as one of the doctors began feeling around the area, gently applying pressure.

Receiving a small nod from the doctor examining the boy's right hip; Arthur quickly explained the situation to the boy on the stretcher. "Okay it looks like you may have broken something down there, so we are just going to take you up to get it scanned and then we can see what needs to be done."

"I'm sorry." Merlin breathed out, a small tear forming in the corner of his eye as a doctor applied pressure to his hip again, comparing the feeling to his left one.

"Don't be." Arthur replied, smiling softly down at the boy, before moving towards the Merlin's hip; neither of them paid attention to the small stroke that Arthur gave the top of boy's head just before he moved away.

*.  
The scan confirmed what the doctors had thought; Merlin had practically shattered his right hip bone. Arthur and the team of other doctors and nurses went about treating the minor injuries; most of them cuts and grazes, before sending the boy up to theatre. When he was put in a pre-surgery room, Merlin nearly fell out of bed when he noticed that Arthur was about to leave; the boy had thrown himself towards the doctor, grabbing at the older man's arm. It was an understandable reaction, especially if you hadn't been through surgery before; the unknown experience being even more frightening if no one was there to be a source of comfort. Arthur stayed stood be the teen's bedside as the anaesthetist came in to administer the general anaesthetic, and the blonde doctor obligingly stayed until Merlin was unconscious.

When Arthur returned downstairs to the emergency department, he only received a raised eyebrow from Percival before Gaius told him to work on the minor's department for the rest of shift. Arthur could have kissed the old man then; although minors was mainly dealing with the drunks that came falling through the A+E doors, it was also a ward that you could always keep busy on. Unlike resus', there was never a time where you didn't have patients to deal with. That combined with it being a Saturday night kept the blonde doctor distracted until it was the end of his shift.

**.  
Instead of heading home, he made his way up to the room that he was told Merlin would be placed in after his surgery. The boy was already in the private room, still asleep from the drugs. Dropping down into the chair beside the bed, Arthur leant his head back, staring up at the white ceiling tiles.

"He's not going to wake up for a little while yet my dear." The blonde doctor sat up straight at the voice, not realizing someone had come into the room. He didn't know how long he had been sat there, and briefly wondered if he had fallen asleep. Turning to the nurse at the door, Arthur subtly checked his watch for the time; nine twenty-five. Rubbing at his eyes, he forced back a yawn. He had obviously fallen asleep at some point as it had been over two hours since his shift had finished.

"Sorry, I know he's not. I've been waiting for the police to arrive, have to talk to them before they can chat to Merlin." Arthur explained, standing up with a stretch. He smiled pleasantly at the nurse as she nodded her head, before she began fussing over the sleeping boy, checking on his bandages and looking at his stats.

"The police are scheduled to arrive in about thirty minutes Doctor Pendragon," the nurse commented as she looked the dishevelled doctor up and down, "You should probably change into a fresh pair of scrubs; there's some blood on the bottom of your top." Arthur looked down at the offending area, groaning as he saw the stain that had darkened spots of his blue tunic.

"Thanks, I'm just gonna go change and try and not look like I've been dragged through a bush." Arthur joked, heading towards the door with one last smile at the nurse and at the boy still sound asleep in the hospital bed.

***.  
By the time he was changed into a slightly cleaner pair of scrubs and back in Merlin's room, the police had arrived. Gaius had contacted them the previous night when the team concluded that this incident and the one previous were linked; it was standard procedure with events like this, and the police needed to be informed even if the victim didn't want to discuss it. As Merlin was presumably underage, they didn't have to clear it with him initially before they made the phone call; and with the severity of both incidents, no one was going to waste time.

"Hello, I'm Arthur Pendragon; Merlin's doctor." Arthur introduced himself to the two uniformed officers who walked into Merlin's private room. Someone had moved a few more chairs into the room whilst Arthur was getting changed, so there were enough seats for everyone to sit down on during the questioning. Indicating the chairs for the two men, the blonde doctor sat down after the police officers.

The two officers nodded simultaneously in greeting, however only one spoke for the duo, "Hello, I am Tristan and this is my colleague Leon. Now can you tell us about the first incident with Merlin?" Arthur nodded in response before describing the first encounter with the teen, specifically the injuries and the kid discharging himself the next day. As he was talking, Arthur couldn't help but notice the way Leon remained silent, not offering questions like Tristan. He also noticed the way Leon kept flicking his eyes over at Merlin; the blonde doctor shrugged it off, but he couldn't help the slight confusion every time he caught the police officers action. The guy was probably just trying to figure things out for the investigation; Arthur blamed the guy's frown, it made it look like he was glaring every time he looked at the boy.

Arthur was describing the injuries Merlin received in the second incident when the teenager finally woke up. Instead of doing the thing that people usually did after surgery and ask for pain medication, the teenager boy pushed his upper body up off the bed to scowl at the doctor and the two police officers. "I am not reporting this." Merlin raised voice brought the trio's focus immediately on him; Arthur instantly jumped from his chair in doctor mode. Gently easing Merlin back down on to the bed, and instead raising the bed so that the boy could sit up with support; the blonde doctor then began to try and placate the teenager whom was still loudly stating that he was not reporting anything, combined with a few swear words that were aimed at everything and anyone.

"I think we'll come back tomorrow, I don't think now is a good time. Thank you Mr Pendragon." Tristan said with another nod, before beckoning the still silent Leon out of the hospital room.

"Well good luck, cause I won't fucking be here," Merlin's voice carried out into the corridor as the police officers took their exit, leaving Arthur to deal with the teen. Merlin began pushing his sheets back, swinging his left leg out of the bed before Arthur grabbed at his shoulders, forcing him back down. "I am not staying here." The teenager snarled at the doctor, pushing Arthurs hand's off of his shoulders.

"Do not make me restrain you."

"You can't make me stay here!" Merlin snapped his voice louder than before.

"No I can't, but at the moment you can't leave either way. Your hip will not be fully healed for at least 10-12 weeks, and we recommend that you don't walk on it for at least 4 weeks. We will start you doing physiotherapy in a week, for now we want you to heal." Arthur retorted, the tone of his voice telling the teen that there was no point in even arguing back. Merlin dropped back against the raised bed in a huff, arms crossing over his chest as he scowled at the wall in front of him. "Can we be civilized now?" The blonde doctor asked as he imitated the teenager's actions.

Taking the kids silence as a yes, Arthur began to slip into work mode again, "Do you have anyone I can call for you?" Merlin glared at the doctor for a moment before shaking his head with a small exhale of breath. "No parent or guardian?"

Merlin shook his head again before muttering, "There's no one."

Arthur ran a hand through his hair as he sighed, "Where have you been living?" Receiving only a shrug in response, Arthur rephrased his question, "Have you been staying at friends?" This time the blonde doctor was rewarded with small shake of the head. Arthur looked down at the small boy half covered in bandages, cautiously sitting down on the edge of the bed, the doctor stared into the teenagers bright blue eyes. "Merlin how old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"I'm going to need to get Social services involved." Arthur explained in a soft and calm voice. A sixteen year old, with no family and no home, was not something that he could ignore. Slowly standing up Arthur felt a hand grab almost painfully at his arm, fingernails biting into his skin. Looking down he saw the look of fear in Merlin's eyes.

"Don't."

Notes: Tristan is that guy from the last two episodes of season 4, I needed a character and he worked well for it. I also loved the relationship between him and Isolde even though they were both only in the show for 2 episodes. But yes I hope you enjoy, and if I'm making big medical mistakes please let me know so I can work better and fix them.


	3. Chapter 3

**PLEASE NOTE**

I changed an aspect of the previous chapter, so** LEON IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER IS NOW LANCELOT.**

* * *

"It's protocol…" Arthur began, sinking back down onto the bed. The blonde doctor felt the boys hand slowly drift down his forearm, until it reached his hand; Merlin gently squeezed the doctor's hand as his fingers fit perfectly into his palm.

"Can't you just not follow protocol, just once?" Merlin practically begged his fingers squeezing the doctor's hand tightly. Arthur bit the inside of his cheek as he stared down at the bed-ridden boy; and he was just a boy. That was confirmed now.

"I could get fired Merlin…"

"Please," Merlin's bright blue eyes were locked on Arthurs now; the doctor refused to break eye contact, despite the gut wrenching feeling he got when he noticed tears forming in the teen's eyes. Arthur sighed as he ran his free hand down his face, he refused to admit defeat but Merlin's tears had stabbed a hole right into his formality.

"You need to give me reason why I shouldn't," Arthur once again sighed, after he said those words. He could get in serious shit just for saying that sentence, he was going against the rules; even though Merlin was sixteen he was also still considered a minor.

"I don't want to go back there." Arthur's head hit his hand; the doctor knew that the situation was just going to get even more difficult.

Arthur sat on the side of Merlin's bed for nearly an hour after the boy had said those seven words. The teenager hadn't said anything else; he had simply rolled over onto his good side, keeping a tight hold on the doctor's hand before eventually falling asleep. No matter how many times Arthur had tried to get him to talk and elaborate more, the boy had still remained silent. After Merlin had drifted to sleep, Arthur remained where he sat, still holding the now limp hand. He would have remained sat there for longer if it wasn't for the appearance of Gaius in the doorway. The senior doctor being in the room made Arthur drop the kids hand immediately; however he couldn't hide the fact he was sat on the boy's bed. If he stood up it would look like he was doing something wrong, but if he stayed sat down it would lead to an awkward questioning. Deciding it was best to just deal with the awkward questions that he might be asked, Arthur stayed sat on the edge of the bed as he nodded in greeting at the older man.

"Go home Arthur, sitting by his bedside will not make him heal faster." Gaius smiled warmly at the blonde doctor as he walked towards him. The old man clapped Arthur once on the shoulder before he moved to check on Merlin's charts. Arthur stood, cracking his back with a small groan as soon as he was upright; smiling at the older doctor, Arthur stole a piece of paper from the back of the clipboard that Gaius was now holding. Grabbing a pen from the breast pocket of his scrubs, Arthur quickly scribbled a note for the teen, before folding the piece of paper in half and writing Merlin in a large scrawl. Leaving it in plain sight, so that it would be one of the first things the teen saw when he awoke, Arthur couldn't help but smile down at the sleeping boy, before making his way from the room.

Glancing at his phone, the blonde doctor blinked at the time; groaning mainly to himself at the fact it was now past midday, Arthur pouted as he remembered he was working another night shift later on. If it had been any other day he would have been in bed for the past four hours, and would be staying in bed for another four. He knew that tonight was not going to be pleasant.

Walking out of the hospital with his bag in hand, and car keys at the ready, Arthur fell into his car wishing that he had thought to get a coffee beforehand. The fifteen minutes it usually took for him to get home felt more like fifteen hours as he drove through the busy London streets. He felt as if everyone driving today were morons who were simply trying to piss him off. By the time he finally parked outside of his building, Arthur was hunched over the steering wheel half exhausted and half annoyed.

When he entered his flat, instead of heading straight to bed, Arthur went out grabbing a few things to throw into a bag for Merlin. He had noticed that the kid had no bag with him when he was brought in, meaning that he had no clothes since the ones that he had been wearing were cut off. Arthur stood facing his open wardrobe, searching through the copious amount of clothes which he rarely wore; he had already managed to find a pair of pyjama bottoms that were clearly from a few years ago as they were several sizes too small. The bottoms were covered in a comic book design, a remnant of Arthur's university days; the blonde doctor remembered when he had worn them for a week straight in the build up to his final exams. Chuckling to himself as he placed them in a hold all bag, the blonde doctor returned once again to his heaving closet; he knew that with the amount of items in there it would be relatively easy to find something for Merlin, even if it all turns out to be slightly too big for the teenager.

Eventually there was a decent amount of clothes found that should fit Merlin, probably with the aid of a belt. Placing the bag with everything in beside the front door beside his work bag, Arthur spotted his tablet resting on the sofa where he had used the device last. Picking it up, he examined it for a moment before placing it in the bag full of clothes; if the kid was going to be in the hospital for the next month at least, he should at least have something to entertain himself with. He knew that he had Netflix on there so Merlin could keep himself amused with whatever he wanted to watch on there. Throwing the charger into the bag also, Arthur didn't even bother walking into his bedroom, simply dropping down onto his sofa.

Grabbing a cushion to place underneath his head, the blonde man let out a moan as his body relaxed into the comfortable sofa. Verging on the edge of sleep that had quickly caught up to him, he was about to fall asleep when he heard the shrill sound of his ringtone echo throughout the room. Pushing himself off of the sofa with a pout and a groan, Arthur couldn't help but stomp over to his work bag, pulling his noisy phone out, answering the device as he did so.

"Dearest brother!"

"What do you want Morgana?" He knew that his tone lacked patience and he knew that his sister was not going to be happy at being talked to in such a way.

"Well you're awfully rude today. I just wanted to let you know that Uther's on the warpath again." Arthur couldn't help but snort at Morgana's wording; the beautiful irony of her wording.

"What has a weapons deal fallen through?" He chuckled, knowing that his sister had probably had to listen to his father rant for the past twenty minutes or so.

"Stop laughing you ass. No, he's going off on you not joining the 'family business' again. " Arthur heard his sister sigh over the phone, and he felt the desire to do so also. His father had never forgiven him for not joining the company; Uther ran the largest weapons company in the country, and he was top contractor for the military, the navy and the air force. To put it simply, his father had all his fingers in all the right pies. Uther had refused to talk to him for nearly a year when he first decided to do a medical degree; well he almost stopped talk to him, other than the continuous attempt to change his sons mind. Arthur spend the first year of university, having to deal with the phone calls from his father telling him it wasn't to later to switch to a business degree.

Sighing, Arthur replied, "I'll deal with him another time, I've got a lot to deal with at the moment without having to deal with father trying to get me to be his second in command."

"A lot to deal with? Since when?" Morgana's teasing voice rang through his ears, as Arthur rubbed his sleepy eyes.

"Since two this morning, listen I'll call you back tomorrow but for now I need to go."

"Fine, I want to hear all the details about these things you're dealing with little brother. Bye Arthur." Arthur grunted his own goodbye, dropping his phone onto his coffee table as soon as his sister hung up. It looked like the night shift was going to be even worse that he expected now that he was going to have little to no sleep before hand.

Arthur couldn't believe his luck as his shift was gradually growing quieter and quieter, not only had he been able to sleep for an hour undisturbed in the on call room, but when his pager did go off, it was only for a call that turned out to be nothing more than a broken arm. It was nearly three in the morning when he decided it was quiet enough to go check on Merlin again; he had arrived at work early so that he could drop the hold all off in the teen's room. He tried not to admit he also wanted to check that the teenager was still actually there; he knew that Merlin wouldn't discharge himself in the state that he was in, but the blonde doctor still wanted to check considering the last time the teen was in the hospital. Merlin was still there, staring up at the ceiling in obvious boredom; a book laid half open at the bottom of the bed.

Arthur couldn't help but smile as he remembered the teen's enormous smile when he saw the content of the bag. Merlin had been cautious when Arthur had initially handed him the bag, not knowing why he was being given it. Arthur had quickly explained that it was for Merlin, earning a rather blunt comment from the teen about not being a charity case. "You're not a charity case, I just want to help. Besides I doubt you want to spend the next few weeks in a hospital gown with your arse hanging out." Merlin had happily opened the bag when he realized that Arthur had brought some clothes for him to wear; hospital gowns were not a pleasant thing after all, especially when you had nothing on underneath. The teen had blushed slightly after tugging the gown off; quickly replacing it with a baggy t-shirt, before realizing that he was unable to put anything on his lower half by himself. Arthur had realized the problem at the same time, joining the teen in blushing slightly. Wordlessly they worked together, with identical blushes, carefully pulling a pair of boxers up and over the teen's heavily bandaged hip.

Pushing the slightly embarrassing situation to the side, Arthur next handed over the tablet to the still blushing boy. "There's Netflix on there, a bit of music, a few games and such," the older man had stated as Merlin held the device in confusion. It was obvious that the teenager didn't know how to react or respond; after all he was being trusted with something worth several hundred pounds. Merlin had carefully placed the tablet onto his lap, before clutching at the doctors hand, squeezing it in wordless communication. Arthur had squeezed back with a smile, before going off to start his shift.

Walking into the room at the early time in the morning, Arthur couldn't help but laugh slightly at the teenage boy still engrossed in the tablet. The doctor knew that hospitals and heavy medication can wreck sleep patterns, so he wasn't surprised to see Merlin still wide awake despite the late hour. Merlin pulled the headphones out of his ears with a smile when he noticed the door to his room open. Arthur walked over to the bed, sitting down on the edge to peak at what the teen had been watching; he couldn't help but laugh when he saw that Merlin had been watching a medical comedy. Pulling the headphone out of the jack, Arthur pressed play on the device, letting the episode continue from where the teen had paused it. Merlin shifted over slowly with a wince, allowing the older man to sit slightly better on the bed. Taking the hint, Arthur brought his legs up, and rested back against the pillow beside the teen, the tablet coming to rest on both of their knees as they laughed along with the episode.

Arthur left a couple of episodes later when his pager beeped again, breaking them from the private undisturbed bubble. He smiled at the teen as he exited the room, earning an equally large smile in response. As Arthur walked back towards the A+E department, he began to think about the situation with the teen. He didn't know what he was doing, nor did he know what was going on. All he did know was that he would back to see Merlin later on, and he would be going to see him the next day, and the day after, and the day after that.

* * *

_**Authors NOTE**_

I would like to apologize, firstly for not posting sooner. Sorry

Secondly in the previous chapter I noticed that I fucked up, if you remember I wrote Leon as the silent cop, that was meant to be Lancelot. If you look back it has been changed but I wanted to kick myself when I realized i wrote the wrong character. I was actually having a hissy fit because I fucked my plot up two chapters in. It is fixed not and I'll just say this, **LEON IN CHAPTER TWO IS NOW LANCELOT**.


	4. Chapter 4

The pattern continued, Arthur would go to visit Merlin every day when he wasn't working, and the days that he was working he would spend any moment of spare time in the teen's room. Merlin still hadn't explained any further why he didn't want social services involved; the kid tended to resort to the silent treatment whenever the matter was brought up. That didn't mean that no progress was made though. Arthur had found out quite a lot about the mysterious teen; he found out that Merlin didn't like tomatoes, and he had never had a McDonald's. The blonde doctor had been slightly shocked at the last one; he'd thought every kid had eaten at the popular fast food restaurant. The next day he came in with a surprise for the teen, a secret McDonald's bag hidden inside his satchel. The smell of greasy food probably stopped it being so secret, but Arthur didn't care when he saw the look on Merlin's face when the brown paper bag was placed in front of him. Arthur had gotten him a few choices and Merlin had devoured them all.

* * *

Merlin had been in hospital for over a week, and had begun having physiotherapy sessions every morning. The police officer, Tristan had returned the day before, this time without his silent colleague Lancelot, to try and get a statement out of the teenager. Arthur had stood to the side of Merlin's bed as the teen once again refused to comment. When Tristan left that day after still not receiving a statement from the teen, he had handed Arthur a card with his work number on it asking the doctor to call him if Merlin decided he wanted to talk. Arthur just nodded as he pocketed the number into the pocket of his scrubs; he knew Merlin wasn't going to talk to the police, no matter how much time they gave him.

* * *

Arthur was on his second consecutive day shift that week and he honestly was about to reach his limit; he disliked day shifts at the best of times, they were always busy, filled with people that honestly shouldn't be sat in the A+E department. Today though was worse than the normal, he hadn't had his lunch break due to a roadside accident involving a cyclist, who was mainly fine but was still taking up a bed in Resus. By the time he had finally got a break he had barely made it into the staff room when his pager beeped, forcing him to run back onto the ward just in time to greet the paramedics bringing in a man who had a heart attack. The man had another heart attack as we got him situated in a bay; after trying to resuscitate, it was Arthur who called Time of Death, and it was also Arthur whom had to tell the family the bad news. To top off his day, he then had to deal with the toaster setting off the fire alarm.

He didn't make it up to Merlin's room till his shift finally ended, and he had to stop himself from slamming the teen's door closed when he finally stepped into the private room. Merlin had already shifted over to one side of the bed, allowing Arthur to sit down next to him; both of them propped up on numerous pillows. "Bad Day?" Merlin asked, finger twitching over the pause button on the screen of the tablet in front of him. Arthur just nodded in response throwing his head back with a sigh. "You should get run over. I've sat in bed watching Doctor Who all day." Merlin teased, earning the first smile Arthur gave that day.

"What series?"

"The one with Donna. Defiantly better than the one with Martha." Arthur nodded in agreement at the teen's words. Over the time the teen had been in hospital, they had both found out that they shared practically the same taste in film and TV. Their taste in music however was slightly different, and Arthur's attempts to get Merlin to like the Beatles had all failed dramatically. Merlin gently nudges Arthur with his elbow, as the kid asked, "You want to tell me why your day was bad then?"

Arthur shrugged, not really allowed to go into detail about patients, "Just one of those days, didn't help that I had to deal with the fucking fire brigade again." Merlin's frown asked the question before the kid could even say the words. "The toaster in the resus staff room set off the fire alarm."

"Really? When was that? I didn't hear the alarm. Was it an actual fire?"

"No it wasn't an actual fire, and about an hour ago, and no you wouldn't have done it doesn't set off the main alarm." Arthur answered the teen's questions one by one.

Merlin pulled a face in confusion, "If it wasn't a fire, and it didn't set off the alarms, what was the problem?"

"The problem is that whenever someone runs off and forgets about their food, if there's smoke that sets off the alarm, it automatically calls the fire brigade."

"Ahh."

"Yeh, ahh. That fucking toaster has set off that alarm five times in the last couple of weeks. If it keeps going off, we're going to get fined and I'm gonna fire whoever keeps making fucking toast." Arthur raged, shifting forwards slightly just to throw himself back against the pillow once more.

"Come on a bit of Doctor and Donna will cheer you up," Merlin smiled at the blonde doctor quickly receiving one in return. Arthur couldn't help but feel that no matter how annoyed or angry he was at something; one smile from the kid next to him would calm him down and cheer him up.

* * *

Merlin had been in hospital for nearly two weeks when Arthur first fell asleep next to him; the blonde doctor was on night shift, and during a quiet period had gone up to see the teen. Whilst he had sat there watching a film on the tablet, Arthur had slowly fallen asleep. Merlin hadn't noticed till he turned to say something about the film, only to be greeted by closed eyes and soft breathing. The teenager had smiled to himself as he admired the man's sleeping face, so calm, no evidence of the frown that the man had walked into the room with earlier on. Turning the tablet off, Merlin shifted into a lying position, joining the older man in sleep.

Since then, Arthur started to ignore the on call room when he had a quiet moment and needed a quick sleep; instead he walked up to the ward that Merlin was on. Merlin had started sitting on one side of the bed, so that no matter if he was awake or asleep, Arthur could come and have plenty of room beside him. If Merlin was awake, he would lift up the sheets, beckoning Arthur to sleep underneath them, but if Merlin was asleep when Arthur walked in, the blonde doctor would simply lie down on top of the bedding. Nine times out of ten though, Merlin was awake, typically watching something on the tablet that Arthur had given to him that first night. Arthur never questioned the teen on his lack of sleep, he knew that hospitals were tediously boring places to be and sleep was often difficult.

This time however, when Arthur walked into the room Merlin was asleep, and even from a distance, the doctor could see that the teen was obviously in the middle of a nightmare. Rushing over, he pressed down on the teen's shoulder, trying to stop the kid from flailing too much; although he was healing quickly, if he jolted around too much it could be lead to a setback. Gently shaking the teen's shoulder to try to rouse him slightly, Arthur started calling his name trying to calm Merlin in his sleep, "Merlin, Merlin, it's just a dream. Merlin. Whatever it is, it isn't real. Merlin. Merlin."

The teen's eyes snapped open, but although they were open it was obvious that he was still caught in the terror of the dream as he flailed even more. "Merlin, it's me Arthur. I'm not gonna hurt you. Merlin, you just need to calm down, you're safe." Arthur could see the teen's eyes slowly start to focus, as the teen took deep gulps of breath. Letting go of his shoulder, he gently eased the teen up into a seated position before sitting down next to the kid's hip. They both sat in silence for a few moments; Merlin had reached out to grasp the doctor's hand, squeezing it as if to reaffirm his presence. "Do you want to talk about it?" Arthur asked, gently squeezing Merlin's hand, receiving a squeeze back in response as Merlin cautiously nodded.

"I dreamt that… that it happened again."

"What happened? Your accident?" Arthur asked, trying not to slip too much into doctor mode. He was the teen's friend but he couldn't help but think that the might finally be able to make some progress on the enigma that the teen was.

"You know as well as I do, that it wasn't an accident." Merlin commented, and for the first time Arthur realized that the teen was shaking slightly. Squeezing the teens hand again, he gently moved his other hand to Merlin's knee cap, casually drawing small circles on the sheets with his finger.

"I know it wasn't," Arthur whispered in response.

"I'm scared that they're gonna hurt me again," Merlin sobbed softly; as he tightened his hold on Arthurs hand as tears slowly fell down his cheeks. Arthur quickly moved, wrapping his arms around the boy's shaking frame, letting the tears soak into the shoulder of his scrub shirt.

"I'm not going to let them hurt you Merlin."

"How are you going to stop them?! I have nowhere to go; they found me on the streets the first time, they'll find me on the streets again." Merlin's tears grew heavier as the fell quicker, large sobs that echoed through the room, and probably out into the corridor. Hands clutched into the fabric of Arthur's shirt, clutching at it between his fingers. The blonde doctor tightened his arms around the boy, holding him even tighter in the embrace. Merlin's words confirmed one little presumption Arthur had about the teen. Although the kid hadn't said anything about it, Arthur had been pretty sure that Merlin was technically homeless.

"I'd never let you stay on the street." And it was true, Arthur had already thought about asking Merlin to stay with him at his flat when the teen was discharged in a few weeks' time. He had even checked with his seniors to see if it was possible. Gaius had smiled at him and said that as long as Merlin wasn't underage there was no legal reason why he couldn't go live with Arthur when he was discharged as after all Arthur was no longer the teen's official doctor. Arthur had bitten back a wince when the word underage was said, but he had silently argued with himself that technically underage was under 16's; and as he was no longer Merlin's official doctor, he wasn't in a position of trust.

"Where else am I going to stay?!" Merlin snapped, pushing Arthur away; although there was hardly any force in the push, Arthur moved back regardless.

"With me."

"Why would you do that, I'm just a pathetic kid that you know nothing about."

"Because we're friends."

**Notes:**

* * *

The whole toaster thing actually happened on the ward my sister works on. She told me the story this morning and it inspired me to write a chapter today. And if it keeps going off they will get fined as well.

* * *

Let's all give Merlin some cuddles.


End file.
